Brazil - BRAZZIL - Brazilian Carnaval Around the World Never Stops - Brazilian Culture

When I went to the Hollywood Palladium Carnaval in Los Angeles for the first time, it took me a while to convince myself that I was in the right place. How could people dressed like that be going to a Brazilian Carnaval ball? My first thought was that either they did not know what to expect from Carnaval or the weather was destroying the spirit of Carnaval that I was used to. Indeed, most of the people I met at the Hollywood Palladium entrance were dressed in dark colors. Long black dresses with high heels were relatively common attire for women, and nice slacks and casual shirts for men.

That Saturday night (February 21, 1998) it was raining. The temperature in Los Angeles was below 50° F. It was 8:30 PM when my husband and I got in line to pick up our tickets. Strangely enough, we did not hear any Portuguese. We could only hear parts of conversations in English or Spanish! As a matter of fact, the two people in charge of the entrance were not Brazilians. I spoke to them in Portuguese and one of them did not even bother to try to understand me. The other one asked me: "¿Hablas Español?"

If most of the people were not "appropriately" dressed for a Brazilian club Carnaval, many of them were dressing even less appropriately for a rock concert, suggesting that something different should be happening at the Hollywood Palladium that night. For instance, our neighbors in line, two blonde American girls and a Colombian guy, wore costumes. Their excitement and anticipation could be seen by their helpless talk. I asked the girl next to me if she had ever been at the Palladium Carnaval. Her reply was negative. She explained that she and her sister were there because her sister's boyfriend, a Colombian, had been to Rio de Janeiro's Carnaval and wanted to show them the craziness of Brazilian Carnaval.

Since I have been insisting on clothing, what does it mean to be appropriately dressed for a Brazilian club Carnaval? In Brazil it usually means to be dressed in clothes and shoes that allow you to jump and dance freely. In that fashion, people usually wear short skirts or pants, and colorful T-shirts. The Carnaval playful spirit also requires that some people wear fantasias (costumes), and they do so for the sake of the game, whether costume contests are expected or not. What, however, is notoriously an indispensable component of the Brazilian club or street Carnaval is the colorfulness of the outfit. In other words, color is certainly one of those symbols of joy and happiness connected to the general spirit of Carnaval that cannot be missed.

By the way, what is Carnaval? Or in other words, what is that special public feast that Brazilians call Carnaval? First, it is necessary to clarify that the English word "carnival" does not mean the same as our Portuguese (and French) "Carnaval." As a matter of fact, the English expression that most closely translates "Carnaval" is the French expression "Mardi Gras", which means "Fat Tuesday." For the word "carnival" Webster's New World Dictionary lists the following definitions: 1. The period of feasting and revelry just before Lent, including Mardi Gras; 2. A reveling or time of revelry; festivity; merrymaking 3. A traveling commercial entertainment with side-shows, rides, games, etc. 4. An organized program of festivities, contests, etc. Even though the first two definitions are equivalent to the ones we find for the word Carnaval in Portuguese dictionaries, in the United States the word Carnaval usually refers to the last two definitions (3 and 4). Cathy Bruington, an American woman who works at the University of California, Riverside, and has attended the Hollywood Palladium Carnaval several times, explains: "It took me a while to figure out that Mardi Gras is the same thing as Carnival. But I had no clue at all that Mardi Gras was celebrated anywhere else in the world, besides New Orleans. I don't think that many Americans do."

Yet the idea of amusement is clearly present in both words, but what we call Carnaval in Brazil has a meaning closer to the one that Bakhtin (1968) found for Carnavals in medieval Europe. In the Introduction of Rabelais and his World, Bakhtin summarizes the elements that confer to Carnaval its uniqueness:

"Carnaval does not know footlights, in the sense that it does not acknowledge any distinction between actors and spectators. Footlights would destroy a Carnaval, as the absence of footlights would destroy a theatrical performance. Carnaval is not a spectacle seen by the people; they live in it, and everyone participates because its very idea embraces all the people. While Carnaval lasts, there is no other life outside it. During Carnaval time life is subject only to its laws, that is, the laws of its own freedom. It has a universal spirit; it is a special condition of the entire world, of the world's revival and renewal, in which all take part. Such is the essence of Carnaval, vividly felt by all its participants."

Bakhtin also explains that the spirit of revival and renewal, which is the essence of Carnaval, "was most clearly expressed and experienced in the Roman Saturnalias, perceived as a true and full, though temporary, return of Saturn's golden age upon earth. The tradition of the Saturnalias remains unbroken and alive in the medieval Carnaval, which expressed the universal renewal and was vividly felt as an escape from the usual official way of life."

At a first glance, the theatrical performance of the samba schools parade in Rio de Janeiro does not seem to have much in common with the medieval idea of Carnaval. However, they are both fed by the same idea of renewal and the need to escape from the usual official way of life. A similar idea of renewal is present in all other expressions of Carnaval in different regions of Brazil.

The Rio de Janeiro Carnaval has been the model of Brazilian Carnaval diffused worldwide. Proclaimed in a well-known song lyrics as "the biggest show on earth", the samba-school parade in Rio de Janeiro is only one among the many facets of street Carnaval in Rio. Beside the Carnaval parade, which is an obviously centered spectacle (with well-defined actors and spectators), all the other expressions of Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro as well as in Brazil as a whole are more or less decentralized, including Carnaval balls.

Another element common to all famous versions of Carnaval in Brazil is that they happen in cities where slavery took place, that is, they are strongly connected with the presence of Africans and its different blends with the Portuguese. The Carnaval of Olinda, Pernambuco, for instance, is considered the most democratic (or socialist?) Carnaval in the country. Because of being very well attended by people from all social classes, it has become the favorite Carnaval among Brazilian progressive politicians, intellectuals and artists. Olinda is also the Carnaval most influenced by European medieval style. For instance, wind instruments predominate over percussion instruments and the dance, which is totally different from samba, is called frevo.

The blocos carnavalescos (Carnaval groups) are the most important organization of the Olinda Carnaval. A bloco is a group of people that get together to "play" Carnaval. There is always some sort of identification between the members of a bloco: neighbors, widows, gays, "virgins", teachers, students, and so forth. Some blocos take the names of their legendary founders, for instance, one of the Olinda's most famous blocos is Potato's Bloc in honor of its founder, Mr. Batata. Each bloco has a band, which is composed by the members of the bloco themselves; a porta-estandarte (the standard's bearer), and the others members who may or may not be wearing a special fantasia. In some cases there is nothing to distinguish the members of a bloco from people who join in during the parade. In general, people follow each bloco for a little while and come back to a certain place where their party agreed to meet.

As well known as Olinda's, the Carnaval of Salvador, Bahia, is a clear expression of the hegemony of African culture over European. There, the percussion instruments predominate over others in the musical bands. Different African groups have different blocos and members of each bloco are distinguished by their diverse fantasias. The music varies from one tradition to another. During the parade the members of a bloco are separated from people in general by a rope held by private security guards.

About 30 years ago, the incorporation of the electric guitar in the Bahia Carnaval produced a revolution in the way of "playing" Carnaval in the whole Northeast. Even though named after the number of people who invented it, trio-elétrico now refers to any electric band playing on a motorized stage (a truck especially refitted for this purpose). They have become a second version of the Carnaval spectacle, but, unlike the samba-school parade, everyone can follow the trio-elétrico and there are no tickets to buy, unless one wants to be inside the rope.

It is also part of the Bahia Carnaval tradition to have a couple of Carnavals outside the conventional time for Carnaval in other cities of the state, since the big Carnaval is concentrated in the capital, Salvador. These Carnavals are called micaretas.

Over the last eight years, the trios-elétricos spread micaretas everywhere, transforming them in one of the biggest cultural businesses in the country. They have made Carnaval a yearlong event that happens practically every month in different capitals or big cities of the region. Hence there is no need to wait an entire year for the next Carnaval. There is always a Carnaval coming by. And the fashion has been exported. Last year, for example, the northeastern Brazilians living in Miami had their first international micareta.

As a matter of fact, Carnaval has been one of the most important bases for creating stereotypes of Brazil and Brazilians all over the world. I'd say that the international spread of a Brazilian image connected to Carnaval was promoted by the Hollywood movie industry during the 1940s. Walt Disney's Los Tres Caballeros (1945), for instance, is an example of a very romanticized image of Latin America that the United States created and diffused worldwide during the times of the Good Neighbor Policy, when the U.S. was interested in creating alliances with South American countries to guarantee its political and economic control over this part of the world. The movie depicts Brazil as the land of samba, joy, jokes and Carnaval, and Carmen Miranda as the embodiment of Brazilian and Latin American female grace and rhythm.

Brazilian women and Brazilian artists and press have always complained that the Hollywood version of Brazil and Brazilians was way too Americanized! Aware of the Brazilian disclaimer of her image of Brazilianness, Carmen Miranda tried to explain that she was still very much Brazilian and also emphasized that in a song that became very popular "Disseram que eu voltei americanizada" (They said that I came back very Americanized). Despite her particular efforts and declarations, the Hollywood image was stronger and prevailed over less powerful versions, including her own.

Today, among the new generations, there are not many people who know about Carmen Miranda and her tutti-frutti hat. Carmen Miranda's image of sensuality has been replaced with the idea of sensuality carved out by the samba-school parade in Rio de Janeiro. Thus it has been a while since images of dental floss bikinis replaced images of tutti-frutti hats. Still these stereotypes portray Brazilians as joyful, sexy, beautiful, happy, crazy, playful, colorful, funny and promiscuous. Despite reactions against the stereotype, these are the images promoted by the exportation of Carnaval. Brazilians living in Brazil or abroad generally know the limitations of such images because they know about different ways of being Brazilian as well as having at least heard about different ways of celebrating Carnaval.

I believe that two major factors contributed to the spread of Brazilian Carnaval worldwide: the international commercialization of TV programs and Brazilian emigration, which has notoriously increased during the last 20 years. In the process of transnational acculturation, samba and Carnaval are, with soccer, the best-known elements of Brazilian culture. They work as bases for different social processes or institutions such as Brazilian cultural business abroad, congregation of Brazilian immigrants and the creation of a Brazilian transnational identity.

Carnaval and samba also work as privileged opportunities in the market of international emigration. In other words, by founding samba-schools or becoming samba teachers or simply sambistas many Brazilian immigrants have gone up in the social ladder. If such social ascent does not necessarily mean considerable amounts of money, it means at least prestige, respect and an enlargement of social networks.

In the recent history of Brazilian international emigration, Brazilians have been led in one way or another to identify with and reinforce these widespread stereotypes of Brazilian culture. In other words, if in Brazil, or even within Brazilian communities abroad, people are distinguished based on their state of birth or regional accents, for instance, at the level of international exchanges they are all Brazilians and as such they have to deal with Brazilian national stereotypes.

Beside the United States, which does not share the passion for futebol (soccer), with the rest of the world, most of the other countries to which Brazilians emigrate also connect Brazilians with soccer and besides referring to "sexy, beautiful women dressed in dental floss' bikinis they also refer to soccer stars Ronaldinho, Pelé, Romário, etc.

Sandra Hirata, 25, a Brazilian from Belém, capital of Pará state, was born and raised in the confluence of Brazilian and Japanese cultures. Her father, a Japanese immigrant in Brazil, taught her and her siblings Japanese and many details of the Japanese culture. When they had to emigrate to Japan five years ago the culture shock was bearable because even in Brazil they were already used to live between two worlds. Having gotten used to transnational moves, Sandra is now at the University of California, Riverside, improving her English and wondering whether to go back to Japan for a college education or to stay here.

While planning our anthropological observation of the Brazilian Carnaval at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, she tells me about ways of enjoying Brazilian Carnaval in Japan. She says that in Tokyo, the Carnaval parade happens in August because of the weather. A parade of samba-schools following the Rio de Janeiro style takes place in Asakusa, Tokyo's old town. Based on what she observed, she believes that the organizers are usually Brazilian samba professionals, who are contracted just to organize the event, and Brazilian immigrants who work with cultural business. Everyone in the parade is apparently Japanese, but it is hard to tell because Japanese-Brazilians are physically very similar to the Japanese. Anyway, the Brazilian Carnaval in Tokyo is a public event that attracts about 6 to 7 thousands people including participants and spectators.

Outside Brazil, samba-schools are institutions that attract Brazilians and people interested in Brazil or Brazilians. Night samba houses are thus a place to meet Brazilians and non-Brazilians, a place to expand networks, to find husbands and wives, to heal homesickness (matar a saudade), to get some sense of self or to create the sense of self that the surrounding market requires.

There are several Brazilian Carnaval balls in California during or around Carnaval time. The Mardi Gras ball at the Hollywood Palladium, which attracts some 4,000 people, seems to be the largest Carnaval ball on the West Coast. In the ranking of the largest ones, the Bay Area Brazilian Club/Friends of Brazil Carnaval Ball comes in second place attracting some 2,500 people.

For Carnaval '98, the Hollywood Palladium Carnaval had been advertised in the papers and radio more or less in the following terms:

Korean Air and Samba e Saudade Productions present

Brazil Carnaval '98

17^th Annual Mardi Gras Ball _ Hollywood Palladium

SATURDAY, FEB 21^st _ 8:30 PM to 3:00 AM

When you can't go to Rio for the Carnaval let the Rio Carnaval come to you.

The biggest, the best, the most beautiful Carnaval outside of Brazil!

Don't miss this night of food, fun, fantasy, non-stop dancing and entertainment with the best bands of Brazil and beautiful samba dancers.

Bring your love... or find your love at the "Carnaval of Angels"!

Once a year, one night only!

Taking advantage of the coincidence of taking place on Valentine's Day, the ads for the Carnaval '99 read slightly different from the above.

Korean Air presents

Samba e Saudade BRAZIL CARNAVAL '99 _ Los Angeles

The largest Brazilian Carnaval Celebration outside Brazil returns to the Hollywood Palladium for one night only.

The King of All Parties will take place on Saturday, February 13, 1999 from

8:30 PM-3 AM

This year's theme is THE GOD OF LOVE brings love to all.

Celebrate the last Carnaval of the millennium, magically on the amorous eve of

Valentine's Day! Dance the night away with thousand of samba lovers…

During my interviews and observations of the Palladium Carnaval dynamics, I heard many people curiously asking why the largest Brazilian ball in California is sponsored by a Korean airline. That part I still do not understand. However, what many people do not know is that it is a Portuguese lady, Maria Lucien, who organizes the biggest Brazilian Carnaval ball in California. Maria Lucien has been organizing the Palladium Carnaval for the last 12 years. Under her direction the Palladium Carnaval more than doubled its attendance, which grew from some 1,500 people to some 4,000 people.

She says that the success of the Palladium Carnaval is a combination of her passion for Brazilian music and people with her experience as a producer of events with stars like Steve Miller, Tina Turner and Carlos Santana. But that is not all. Not counting on sponsors she had to mortgage her house to invest the money (one hundred thousand dollars) in organizing her first Palladium Carnaval ball twelve years ago, in 1987. Although a bit resentful about the absence of Brazilian sponsors, Maria Lucien is aware of the importance of Brazilian presence at the event. She says, "Brazilians are definitely the ones who give the Palladium Carnaval its glamour. After all, how could a Brazilian Carnaval be performed with no Brazilians?"

Celebrating this year its 18^thanniversary, the Palladium Carnaval is a creation of its organizers, based primarily on Brazilian immigrants' need to gather and socialize as well as carve out a place for Brazil and Brazilians in Los Angeles. However, its success is a product of Los Angeles cultural market demands, which constantly create and recreate novelties and exoticisms. One way or another, beside promoting Brazil and Brazilians on a broader scale in Los Angeles, the Palladium Carnaval also plays an important role as an arena where important alliances or circumstantial commitments can be established between Brazilians and Americans as well as Brazilians and other immigrant groups, especially Latinos.

Even though first created around Brazilians, the Palladium Carnaval is a party for all races, ethnic groups and nationalities. At last year's ball, for instance, I interviewed people from countries as varied as Syria, Greece, Lebanon, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, India, France and Peru, to say nothing of Brazilians and Americans.

Eddie Sakaki, a Mexican journalist, who has been living in the States for the last 20 years, gives his impressions about the Palladium Carnaval:

"This is my second time here and it is hard to believe that I missed several balls between my first time, 9 years ago, and now. I found out about the Palladium Carnaval through the press and, of course, I felt very attracted by the idea of a sensual celebration of all peoples and races. Beautiful and semi-naked women dancing and moving around the main ballroom is very attractive, isn't it?"

A white-American male, about 40, whose name I did not ask, says that he connects Carnaval with music, dance, festivities, but mainly sexuality. He says:

"Do you know, for me the whole thing is very sexual, but sexual in a very special way. It is like the celebration of the body with music, joy. Very positive way of bringing out sexuality to the public scene. The whole thing; music, freedom, costumes… all lead to a very special way of celebrating the body."

Even though rooted in a stereotyped Brazilian way of representing and living life, the Brazilian Carnaval in Los Angeles calls for a universal celebration of the body. Eddie Sakaki explains again:

"When I come to the Palladium Carnaval, the last thing to cross my mind is that I am coming to an ethnic celebration or this sort of thing. First, the Hollywood Palladium is not an appropriate venue for ethnic events, and second, the idea that I see in Brazilian Carnaval is moving beyond racial and ethnic segregation to celebrate the body."

It is still, however, "a universal celebration of the body" proposed by a very specific culture, the Brazilian culture. In this sense even if working in a direction different from other ethnic events in Los Angeles, the Brazilian Carnaval is still fed by the logic of exotic consumerism. The impact of these ethnic cultural markets over Brazilian immigrants' lives is an important issue which cannot be explored in the scope of this article.

The 11,000 square foot oval dance floor of the Hollywood Palladium makes it the perfect place for Carnaval balls and other dancing parties, even though now the venue is used more for rock concerts. The Palladium main ballroom is like a theatre-in-the round, featuring a stage (about 30 feet wide) surrounded by the audience. The stage was decorated with colored balloons whose ropes were hanging down, reminding me of our Brazilian serpentinas (paper streamers).

Beautiful masks and butterflies were decorating stage and ballroom. Hanging down on the left-hand side of the stage was a big picture of Carmen Miranda, the Hollywood-made symbol of Brazilian female grace and rhythm. The United of Los Angeles samba school started out Carnaval '99 by playing samba and presenting its sambistas (samba dancers) dressed in typical Baiano clothing. After observing these first dancers for a while, my eyes shifted to the audience. Most of the people were standing still in front of the stage, just watching. Only a few were dancing.

The performance of Brazilian Carnaval outside Brazil requires somehow educating the audience about Carnaval. Beside Brazilians and other non-Brazilians who have visited Brazil, not many people in the United States have been exposed to Carnaval, since New Orleans represents the Catholic exception in a Protestant world. In that manner, the role of the Master of Ceremonies is very important. He is the one in charge of guiding the audience into directions he and the organizers think the party should go.

Differently from the Carnaval '98, this year the MC did not leave people standing still for a long time. He kept inviting the audience to become real participants of the Palladium Carnaval '99. People were invited to follow the music regardless of following the samba steps. "Move your body as you please but do not just stand still… Carnaval has to do with moving the body with sensuality… Let's go - you can do it!" His invitation was heard and before I knew it almost everybody was dancing. Dancing and watching, of course. Even though I am Brazilian, and have been to several Carnavals in Brazil, I confess that it was hard not to watch the show of music and dance that the Palladium presents.

During the first few hours, considering the "spectator attitude" of the people plus what was being shown on the stage made me see the show only as a commodity of the international colonized cultural market. In this sense, the performers seem to be selling a product that it is not that common in the Los Angeles cultural market: a naïve, artistic and joyful sensuality, on the one hand, and a very special way of dealing with racial diversity, on the other hand.

Sexuality and racial mixture á la Brazilian are thus wrapped up with samba and sold to an interested, amazed, delighted and dreamy audience.

However, the more time went by the freer people felt to dance and flirt.Borrowing from Roberto da Matta's Carnaval, Rogues, and Heroes (1991), I'd say that the possibility of having an erotic visual relationship with everyone seemed to become as central in the context of the Hollywood Palladium as it is central in the context of Carnaval balls or street Carnaval in Brazil.

The costume contest (concurso de fantasias) can be regarded as the high point of the feast and a parting of the waters simultaneously. I do not mean that from the costume contest on people's mood magically change. As a matter of fact, people were getting into the Carnaval mood little by little and certainly the massive presence of Brazilians after 11 PM contributed a lot for the mood renewal. And later on, when alcohol began to take away remnants of shyness, or make people forget the world of lawsuits and sexual harassment, they started to dance closer to each other and even risked touching each other.

Conga lines weaving around the ones who were not dancing would make them fall into the contagious rhythm of samba and other old and new Carnaval rhythms. From the higher balconies where it is possible to have an entire view of the dance floor, we would see the crowd moving as one body. I felt then the same kind of energy I used to experience in the northeastern Carnavals in Brazil. In other words, the spirit of the celebration had finally taken over. There were no more spectators on the dance floor, they had got into the dancing, touching and flirting the occasion was asking for. In brief, they had finally got into the Brazilian Carnaval spirit.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people whose help was essential to make my study on the Palladium Carnaval possible. Sérgio Brito, my husband, and Sandra Hirata helped me with interviewing, observing and discussing data. With Lauren Holt and Eddie Sakaki I shared data and doubts. Maria Lucien patiently answered my questions in a three-hour-long (and very agreeable) interview as well as offering me press privileges and free ticket for Carnaval '99. In thanking Edna Grover and Cathy Bruington I take the opportunity to thank all anonymous interviewees who agreed to "stop-dancing" to answer my questions.

Move
Your
Body!

Bernadete Beserra

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Move Your Body!

Bernadete Beserra

CDs or Books by Keyword, Title or Author

Move
Your
Body!

CDs or Books
by Keyword, Title or Author